Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano, and ...

[sitifan]

A feminine voice began to sing a humorous song about the difficulties of learning a foreign language. Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano, and the audience demanded an encore. (Idiom Drills, by George P. McCallum, page 57)

In the above passage, is the conjunction "and" redundant?

 

[emsr2d2]

It's not redundant but it could be removed and replaced with a semi-colon.

 

[Tdol]

Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano

I'm not sure that had is the best verb for this context.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure that had is the best verb for this context.

I agree. I think I unconsciously changed it to "was" when I read post 1. Sitifan, note that it would be more natural as:

1. Whoever it was was a soprano ...
2. Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano voice ...

 

[sitifan]

I am sorry I made a typo. The original is as follows:
A feminine voice began to sing a humorous song about the difficulties of learning a foreign language. Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano voice, and the audience demanded an encore. (Idiom Drills, by George P. McCallum, page 57)

 

[Phaedrus]

I am sorry I made a typo. The original is as follows:
A feminine voice began to sing a humorous song about the difficulties of learning a foreign language. Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano voice, and the audience demanded an encore. (Idiom Drills, by George P. McCallum, page 57)

Sitifan, I've been wondering why you thought the and might be "redundant," whether in your initial misquote or in the version with the typo corrected.

Could it be that you parsed the "whoever"-clause like this?

Whoever it was [that] had a beautiful soprano voice . . .

If so, the "that" should really be there. If you included the "that," the "and" would not be redundant. It would be totally ungrammatical:

Whoever it was that had a beautiful soprano voice, the audience demanded an encore.
*[strike]Whoever it was that had a beautiful soprano voice, and the audience demanded an encore.[/strike]

In the actual sentence, however, which lacks a "that" between "was" and "had," the clause "Whoever it was" functions as the subject of the first independent clause:

Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano voice.

The reason the "and" is needed is that it coordinates the first independent clause with the second. The sentence would be a run-on without "and," just like the sentence below:

?* She had a beautiful soprano voice, the audience demanded an encore.

For what it's worth, another way the second sentence could have been written is like this:

Whoever the singer was, she had a beautiful soprano voice, and the audience demanded an encore.

 

[sitifan]

A feminine voice began to sing a humorous song about the difficulties of learning a foreign language. Whoever it was had a beautiful soprano voice, and the audience demanded an encore. (Idiom Drills, by George P. McCallum, page 57)

Does "it" refer to the feminine voice?

 

[jutfrank]

it refers to the person with the soprano voice.